No Christians Wanted

Any readers here planning on applying for a job with the Ferndale (Michigan) School District? Don’t bother:

The contract ran from 2011 to 2012 but was extended to 2017. The teachers belong to the Ferndale Education Association, a division of theMichigan Education Association.

Regarding promotion to a vacant position, it states on page 22:

Should there be two (2) or more of these applicants with equal qualifications for the position and one (1) or more of these applicants with equal qualifications is a current employee, the current employee with the greatest seniority shall be assigned. Special consideration shall be given to women and/or minority defined as: Native American, Asian American, Latino, African American and those of the non-Christian faith. However, in all appointments to vacant positions, the Board’s decision shall be final.

Earlier in the contract is a “no discrimination clause” that states no employee can be discriminated against based on their religion. [Emphasis in original.]

Michigan Capitol Confidential found this, and Ed Morrissey of Hot Air brought it to a much bigger audience. This is where diversity-mongering has gotten us–open, explicit discrimination against Christians.

Two specific problems with this: first, it is a blatant violation of the First Amendment’s so-called “Establishment Clause,” one so egregious it makes one wonder whether anyone connected to either the school board or the teachers’ union has ever so much as glanced at a copy of the Constitution. Second, it is a violation of who-knows-how-many civil rights and employments laws, because it necessarily involves asking questions specifically forbidden by those laws such as “what religious beliefs to you hold?” or “what church do you attend?” Once again, this is wrong on so many counts that only someone who has been hermetically sealed away from any contact with American culture over the last fifty years would not know how illegal this is. And only a teachers’ union representative or a union-compliant school board would not instantly recognize how genuinely un-American this is.